Chapter Thirty-Two: A Slap and a Sweet Treat

While Divine Physician Dong was deliberating over the prescription, Yin Jiaojiao woke up.

She looked at the short, white-haired, and white-bearded old man in a daze and said, "Divine Physician Dong, it's you again."

Both Divine Physician Dong and Qiu Ming were startled and turned around in haste.

"This should be the first time the Princess has seen me. Why do you say 'again'?"

Yin Jiaojiao snapped back to reality and replied, "I seem to have heard someone mention you in a dream."

"It must have been the Prince who mentioned him," Qiu Ming said, holding up a cup of water. "Divine Physician Dong was invited by the Prince. He is truly remarkable. Your complexion was terrifying just now, and your breathing was fading away; it was Divine Physician Dong who pulled you back with a few needles."

"It's not as exaggerated as that," Divine Physician Dong waved his hand. "The Princess is fated to live. The sword strike was deflected, and with the Prince's timely rescue, it was a close call but without any grave danger. Coincidentally, we can take this opportunity to properly nourish your body. In the future, you may even be able to forgo the Dust-Avoiding Decoction."

"What is the Dust-Avoiding Decoction?"

"It is..." Divine Physician Dong paused. "The Prince did not tell you?"

"Tell me what?"

"Divine Physician Dong!" Su Zhengqing pulled back the curtain and entered, interrupting the physician's hesitation. "How is the Princess... Oh, Princess, you are awake?"

He stepped forward in pleasant surprise and observed her carefully. "That is wonderful. I will go notify the Prince at once."

With Qiu Ming's help, Yin Jiaojiao took a sip of water and asked, "Where is the Prince? How is he? And the assassin?"

"Rest assured, the assassin and those who harmed you have already been taken to the dungeon. The Prince is unharmed, and he..." Su Zhengqing stammered, "He will return immediately after seeing off the County Princess."

Seeing off the County Princess...

Yin Jiaojiao sighed. The spirit she had barely managed to summon withered away, and her wounds began to ache faintly.

She lay back down on the daybed, not wishing to speak another word. In her heart, she cursed herself for being spineless, for actually taking the vague illusions of a dream as reality and fostering unrealistic expectations.

A dream is just a dream.

What pitying sighs? What gentle comfort? What "Be obedient, Jiaojiao"?

Bah!

If Xiao Yuanchi were capable of being so gentle and accommodating toward her, would she have suffered such grievances and insults in front of so many people?

Yin Jiaojiao clutched her chest and gasped. Divine Physician Dong heard the commotion and came over to check, reprimanding her, "Do not get excited, watch your wounds!"

She wasn't excited; her heart had long since turned to ash.

This time, she had truly made a miscalculation. Had Luo Xiang’s movements not been quite so agile, or had Xia Lan not seized the moment she was causing chaos to give her a shove from behind, would she have been forced to throw herself into the fray and get stabbed again?

Having schemed for days and dodged every trap, to still fall at the hands of Xia Lan—Yin Jiaojiao felt incredibly dejected.

"Princess, it was Noble Consort Shu who insisted that the Prince escort Lady Sun; it wasn't the Prince's own intention," Qiu Ming whispered, trying to comfort her. "Princess, Qiu Ming knows you have suffered a great wrong and even took a trip to the gates of the afterlife, but I am truly not trying to deceive you. Earlier, when Lady Gu was making a scene before the tent, the Prince warned her, and even Lady Sun was warned along with her, telling them to stop while they were ahead."

If this were before, she might have felt a flicker of interest, but now? After being treated unfairly, a few half-hearted, so-called warnings were just for show. Wasn't this behavior just like slapping someone and then offering a candy?

Oh, and it wasn't even a candy; at best, it was a sour apricot.

"Princess, this time you risked your life to save the Prince; even Noble Consort Shu has nothing to say. The Prince must have been moved by you!"

In her previous life, she had truly saved him, and she hadn't seen him moved in the slightest. The more Yin Jiaojiao listened, the more frustrated she felt.

"I am tired, Qiu Ming."

"Oh."

Qiu Ming walked out of the tent, dejected. Su Zhengqing made a face and said, "I told you, the matters between the Prince and the Princess are very troublesome. Sometimes the more you try to persuade them, the worse it gets. Got a cold shoulder again, didn't you?"

Qiu Ming was already angry, and his persuasion only made her angrier.

"My getting a cold shoulder is your fault! You and Master Zhang are cut from the same cloth; neither of you is any good. You knew the truth but didn't say a word, helping that wicked woman bully the Princess. The top beam is crooked, so the bottom ones are askew!"

Su Zhengqing was scolded out of the blue. He stammered for a long time without being able to refute a word; he felt wronged as well.

"We were just following orders. It was the Prince who said not to pursue it. These are troubled times; the mountain bandits from before and the assassins now are, frankly, the same bunch. There are so many eyes watching from behind the scenes—ah, it's hard to explain in a moment. Besides, it's only on the surface that we aren't pursuing it; in private..." He stopped abruptly and changed the subject stiffly. "Anyway, it's that the top beam is crooked, don't get it wrong."

Qiu Ming gave a long "oh" and suddenly bowed to the figure behind Su Zhengqing.

"Prince, you have returned."

"Is the Princess awake?"

It was undoubtedly Xiao Yuanchi's voice. Su Zhengqing shivered, turned around with difficulty, and forced a fawning smile. "She is awake, the Princess woke up some time ago."

"Lift the curtain."

He seemed not to have heard their discussion. Su Zhengqing breathed a sigh of relief, chirped an acknowledgment, and hurried to lift the curtain. As Xiao Yuanchi bowed and stepped into the military tent, he said, "Go back and copy 'The Art of War' one hundred times. Hand it to Master Zhang in three days, you 'bottom beam'."

Su Zhengqing was left petrified on the spot.

...

Yin Jiaojiao was, after all, severely wounded and weak. By the time Xiao Yuanchi entered the tent, she had fallen back into a deep sleep, but her complexion did look a bit better.

Divine Physician Dong finished deliberating the prescription and handed it to the young attendant.

"This is a good opportunity. We can use potent medicine to regulate her constitution. It might just allow the Princess to recover completely, so this favor won't be wasted."

"Thank you for your hard work," Xiao Yuanchi cupped his hands again. "I will never forget your great kindness, sir."

"Do not speak of such things," Divine Physician Dong cast a sidelong glance at the woman on the daybed. "Prince, listen to my advice. You are good in many ways, but there is one thing you are not good at."

"Please speak, sir."

"You were born with a mouth for nothing."

Xiao Yuanchi was uncharacteristically stunned.

Divine Physician Dong smiled. "Do not always hide things away. What you think is good may not necessarily be good for others. I am a physician; I can cure illnesses of the body, but I cannot cure illnesses of the heart. Bodily ailments can always be treated, but heart ailments are not necessarily so, and they are often far more destructive. Prince, if you care, do not be indifferent. If you do not care... let go sooner; it will be better for both of you."

Xiao Yuanchi was silent for a moment before saying, "I will remember your words, sir."

"It is useless to remember them with your mouth; you must remember them in your heart," Divine Physician Dong picked up his medicine chest. "That prescription requires a rare medicinal ingredient that I must prepare myself. It will take two days. In these two days, do not let the Princess move around, do not let her eat indiscriminately, and above all, do not let her get angry."

Xiao Yuanchi listened to the doctor's orders and noted them down one by one before personally seeing Divine Physician Dong to the door.

With the treatment concluded, Yin Jiaojiao was taken back to the East Courtyard to recuperate.

With everything settled, Xiao Yuanchi arrived at the manor's dungeon.

All prominent families in the Eastern Capital had private prisons, usually used to hold unruly villains before handing them over to the authorities. But the Prince of Qin’s manor was different. Its dungeon had the same configuration as the Ministry of Justice’s prison; every instrument of torture found in the Ministry, the Prince of Qin’s manor possessed, and in an even more comprehensive manner.

Luo Xiang was hung on a rack. Acupuncture needles had been inserted into two major pressure points at the back of her head, leaving her body limp and unable to commit suicide. Both corners of her mouth were stained with blood, and three teeth had been knocked out.

Master Zhang said, "Prince, she had poison hidden in three of her teeth. If she bit down on one, she would die instantly. She is a well-trained death warrior."

"It seems we won't be getting any truth out of a death warrior."

Master Zhang sighed, "I will not lie to you, Prince. Her mouth is very tight, and her background is very clean; she left no clues behind."

"Then investigate the poison. A poison that kills instantly is not common, nor are the ingredients or the recipe." Xiao Yuanchi walked slowly to a quiver, pulled out a feathered arrow, and examined it. "I heard your name is Luo Xiang. You have good skills."

Luo Xiang let out a cold snort.

Xiao Yuanchi took the recurve bow from Su Zhengqing and remained calm. "Your movement techniques originate from Puyang County in the South Sea, and your swordplay has hints of the Jade Water Nunnery of Jiannan. The people who trained you invested heavily. But since they invested so much, they should know that you alone cannot kill me. They sent you here to die from the very beginning, didn't they?"

Luo Xiang's eyes flickered, but she remained silent.

"However, although you cannot kill me, you could have killed my wife." Xiao Yuanchi notched the arrow onto the recurve bow, the tip pointing directly at the center of Luo Xiang's brow. "Guess, is Yin Jiaojiao dead?"

Luo Xiang trembled, and finally, she looked up.